The author's visit to Poland in November 1989 revealed a prison system that is run by the national government and that has no jail administered by local governments. However, a local system similar to jails is administered by the police, who are controlled by the central government. One Warsaw facility housed about 550 inmates, mostly serving time for stealing or burglary. Nearly every inmate smoked. Inmates had food, hotplates, televisions, and sometimes refrigerators. A prison hospital is attached to the facility. Poland's booklet describing its penitentiary system explains that facilities are operated on the principles of legality, individualization, and humanism, even though citizens may be arrested and held for 2 days before seeing a judge. Only 2.9 percent of Polish prisoners are female, and most of the 15 women's facilities have work-related industries. Poland is changing so rapidly that many aspects of its criminal justice and correctional systems may have changed since the 1989 visit. Photographs.